The new Dutch film Single Street (aka Singel 39) which is the movie debut of TV director Frank Krom is labelled a rom-com but is technically not one in the traditional sense. When girl meets boy she is immediately put into the friend zone which is where she stays for the whole length of the film.
This however is a charming crowd pleaser of a movie even though it has a very predictable plot where having a baby is more important for our hapless hero/heroine than falling in love.
Monique (Lies Visschedijk) is following in her father’s footsteps and is a very successful cardiac surgeon in Amsterdam and lives in a rather beautiful house on the Singel canal. She has a once-a-month lover who is a Canadian surgeon who works in Brussels and he satisfies her ‘needs’ for the moment.
Then one day she lets her empty ground floor to Max (Waldemar Torenstra) a handsome sculptor who turns the space into a live/work studio, and life for both of them is never quite the same. Monique, known as Mo, has poor gaydar so it comes as a shock to her when she discovers Max is into men.
Regardless of this the two became best buddies and start getting more involved in each other’s lives . When Max tells of his desire to become a parent the heavy hints he drops to Mo fall on deaf ears. It’s only when he turns up with a striking blond called Marlene (Loes Haverkort) who he introduces as his baby’s mama. does Mo start to realise that she should have offered up herself instead.
Thankfully there is a great chemistry between Visschedijk and Torenstra as the whole of this pleasant wee movie hangs on them and makes this non rom=com the easy-going charmer that it is
P.S. No spoilers , but we can tell you that Max does get laid thanks to an ambulance driver who works at Mo’s hospital
PPS Single 39 is screening at OUTFEST Virtual Film Fest.
P.S. For his next role playing a boxer Torenstra undertook a 16 week intensive training course and boy, look what happened to him.
